DeSantis lays out plan for national school choice program with corporate tax changes

DES MOINES, Iowa – Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out his plan for a national school choice program if elected president utilizing a reform on the corporate income tax.

The U.S. has a corporate income tax rate of 21% federally. The governor said similar to Florida’s system, he would want companies to be able to “check off” a certain amount of their taxes to go towards school choice.

“They can check off a certain amount of money to go to this scholarship fund, instead of sending it to the government, so it is technically never in the government’s possession,” DeSantis said in an interview with Iowa PBS.

“We would do something similar federally,” he said. “Corporate income tax… they would be able to check off a certain amount, it would go to these scholarship organizations that then administer the scholarships.”

The governor said the amount of funding needed would be a “budget dust” compared to national spending, saying even $25 or $50 billion would be enough.

In 2022, the U.S. reportedly raised around $425 billion in corporate taxes.

“We did a billion-dollar program between administration and scholarships, that served 100,000 kids in Florida,” DeSantis said. “A lot of states they wouldn’t need even close to a billion.”

Under his plan, the money would “never actually go into the government coffers,” but rather be diverted directly to a scholarship fund.

This year, DeSantis boasted a record amount of school choice scholarship applications in Florida.

The governor had signed a school choice expansion bill in March, enabling all students to be able to apply for vouchers.

“Parents are going to be able to have the ability to get money for their student for their child, and they can do tuition, they’re also going to be able to use it for things like tutoring and other things that can be very important for a child’s development and well being,” he said.

Florida’s massive school choice expansion was sponsored by Sen. Cory Simon, R-Tallahassee, and Reps. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, and Susan Plasencia, R-Orlando.

DeSantis recently said nearly 430,000 students have participated and applied for scholarships under the state’s Tax Credit Scholarship and the Family Empowerment Scholarship program.

The program’s historic figure eclipses its 250,000 enrollment from last year.